


Lukewarm Carrots

by fecklessphilanderer



Series: The Arcana Whump [8]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Burns, Gender-Neutral Apprentice (The Arcana), Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Magical Accidents, Minor Injuries, Whump, portia goes mother hen and takes care of you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28250184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fecklessphilanderer/pseuds/fecklessphilanderer
Summary: The apprentice burns their hand just as Portia comes home. They sit down for dinner hoping they can grit their teeth and get through the meal but their partner is far more discerning than she seems.
Relationships: Apprentice/Portia Devorak, Portia Devorak/Reader
Series: The Arcana Whump [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675759
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Lukewarm Carrots

You feel the searing heat before the pain laces through your fingers. You’d been re-working an old spell from the notebooks Asra had dredged up from the basement of the shop. Old notes and plans in your own hand that you had no memory of writing.

It was like meeting an old friend.

But sometimes it backfired on you, as it had now when you tried to use what you thought was a simple heating spell to start warming the leftovers for when Portia returned to your cottage.

It was a rare day off for you, so you spent it trying to tidy up and prepare to dote upon your partner. Fluffing the pillows and airing out the rooms and working on your spells as you went.

You let out a stuttered groan and clamp your other hand around your wrist to get a good look at your dominant fingers. You can see the raw red forming across the joints and knuckles—as if you’d punched a boiling pot.

“Y/n! I’m home—oh hello Pepi!” The front door bangs open and you jump, pulling your hand to your chest and using your good one to move the steaming plates to the table.

“I’m in here!”

“Oh! What is all this?”

You throw yourself into a seat as Portia enters the small kitchen shoving your injured hand under the table and reaching for her with the other.

She practically skips over to you, placing a warm vaguely lemon scented hand on your cheek before planting a sweet kiss on your lips.

“Dinner, since you’ve been working so hard.”

“Really! Wow y/n you went all out,” she settles in the seat across from you while you hazard a glance down at your hand—the burns are starting to puff up a bit, they’ll be obvious blisters soon. It feels like your hand is on fire.

“It was nothing,” she’s watching you now with a curious expression, “why don’t we dig in?” You offer as a distraction.

“Alright! Mmm this smells amazing!” She takes a bite of the stuffing before scooping a helping onto her plate. You try not to be too obvious about using only one hand as you dole out vegetables onto your own plate.

“We should bring some leftovers to Nadia tomorrow! She’d love this.” You hum in response around a mouthful of carrots. Chewing helps you ignore the way your hand feels like it’s boiling beneath the skin. You remain mostly quiet as you eat. Waiting for the right time to pretend you need the washroom so you can dunk your hand into some ice water.

“So, get any cool spell work done today y/n?” Her smile turns excited as you nod.

“Started on a few of the ones in the book. Conjuring and that sort of stuff.”

“Oh c’mon y/n! Show me something!” She’s so excited. You can’t exactly say no to her. She loves magic. Nadia even changed her schedule after you got the city sorted to allow her more days off to study with Asra, Mazelinka or you.

“Alright, but just a small one.”

She leans closer to you to watch, practically wiggling in her seat from excitement.

You hold out your good palm, feeling the magic buzz on your skin as and orb of light blooms into the shape of a flower. Bright petals falling in slow motion through the air and—

“Ah!” The light abruptly disappears as your injured hand burns with new vigour, the magic on your skin like salt in the wound. You squeeze your eyes shut and breathe.

“Y/n?” Portia’s hands are sliding into your hair.

“I’m fine,” you blink back tears.

“What’s this!?” You flinch as a hand grasps your wrist, pulling on your burnt skin. 

Portia drops it and instead returns to placing her hands on your face.

“Show me.” She squishes your cheeks and runs her thumbs under your eyes.

“Show you what?”

“yn!”

You hold up your hand with a sigh.

It looks bad, already puffy and red in a sort of winding pattern that must follow the flow of magic through that hand.

Portia gives a little aborted whine of sympathy before glaring.

“Did this just happen?”

You shake your head.

“When you were cooking?”

“Tried to warm the food with magic. The spell was a lot more aggressive than I thought though. I think it was for combat.”

“I don’t care what it was for, how long were you going to hide this!”

“I was going to pretend to need the washroom and deal with it then.”

She’s already tugging you out of your chair and away from your dinner as she speaks.

“y/n! I don’t want to eat dinner with you if you’re hurt, you should’ve told me.”

“You’ve been busy lately. I didn’t want to ruin dinner.”

You stand in the bathroom while she rolls up her sleeves to pump the bucket full of cool water before filling the sink.

“That’s no excuse to not take care of yourself. You know the folks in the kitchens told me you’ve got to cool a burn right away or it’ll keep burning under your skin.”

She guides your hand into the full sink and the relief is immediate. You let out a sigh and the tension you didn’t know you were holding.

“Now how’s that?” She smoothes a hand down your waist

“A lot better.”

You both stand in the bathroom for a long while. Until you can take your hand out of the water without the burning heat returning to your hand. It still stings though.

“I’m sure we have a salve somewhere,” Portia is mumbling to herself as she digs through the cabinets.

“I’m sorry I ruined our dinner.”

She doesn’t pause her looking.

“Aha!” She holds up a small glass jar, “give me your hand y/n.”

You sit on the counter and let her smear the ointment across your hand before deftly wrapping it in bandages and tying it off with a bow on your wrist.

“You didn’t ruin anything y/n.” She presses a kiss to your injured hand.

“You’re always taking care of me Portia. I wish I could take care of you more.”

“You do take care of me!” She tugs on your shoulder to lead you back to the table. She gets you settle back in your chair before you spot the devious glint in her eye.

You let out a little _oof_ as she throws herself into your lap, sliding an arm around you neck and reaching up with the other hand to stroke your face.

“Let’s eat!” She grins and waits for you to get a carrot before leaning forward to gobble it off your fork.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a pretty quick write just to get the idea out! Thanks so much for reading! I have a lot of whump for this series in my wip's so fingers crossed I get more out this year!


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